


The Elsewhere

by SugarBugX



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6257164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarBugX/pseuds/SugarBugX





	The Elsewhere

I have one green eye and one brown eye. The green eye sees the truth, the brown one sees much more. The green eye sees reality. The brown one sees where everyone comes before they get to earth, and where they go after they leave it. If I shut one eye I can see each world clearly. When I open both the worlds blur together and I see ghosts walking around like people in the real world. I can’t just keep one eye shut all the time, and since pirates aren’t really walking around anymore I can’t wear an eye patch either. (I would get stranger looks than I already do.) So I keep both eyes open and I watch the ghosts. I have to be careful though. Every now and then it becomes difficult to tell what is reality and what is, what I’ve started calling, The Elsewhere. To everyone else it looks like I have a twitch in my right eye, but in actuality it’s me checking what is real. Everyone in the Elsewhere is about 18 or so, whether they haven’t been born yet, or they died at age 100.  The ones who haven’t been born yet have no voice. They only wander, not knowing where they are, or where they are going. The one’s who are dead do speak. But they can’t leave the room they died in. There’s a boy in my English class, Kenneth. I started talking to him the first day, but a girl started giving me strange looks. When I got home I looked him up. 5 years ago, he was staying after school for a test and was stabbed by another student with a grudge. Poor guy. He won’t be around forever though. I don’t know exactly how it works or where they go, but eventually they all disappear.

I am sitting at my desk, staring at the defacing pencil drawing of a star. Kenneth is trying to talk to me again. I don’t respond. In frustration he rattles the door behind the desks in the back of the room. I cringe. I feel bad for ignoring him. I wish I could talk to him but I can’t have my peers thinking I’m even stranger than they do. He tries to kick a desk but his leg passed right through and he almost loses his balance. Finally, guilt and pity overwhelm me and I take out a notebook and a pen. I try to make eye contact with him and subtly wave. He eventually catches on and walks over. I write on the page.

“I’m sorry I can’t talk to you. The rest of the people in here can’t see or hear you.” 

He reaches for my pen to write back but his hand goes through it. I pick it up.  “ You can just talk, I’ll listen and write .”   I write. 

He nodds. “Why can’t they see me or hear me? Am I a ghost?” He asks. 

I nodd. 

“That explains a lot.” He says. “How come you’re the only one who can see or hear me?” 

I tap the pen on the page a few times before finally putting ink on paper. “That’s something that would take some time to explain.”

The bell rings. I stand up and say “See you tomorrow.” To the kid behind us but touching Kenneth’s arm so he knows it was directed at him. 

I gather my things and leave the room. 

I meet Meg at her locker, just like I do every day. She has her hair down. Her black curls cascade over her shoulders. She’s wearing jeans, a white shirt and her brown leather jacket. She Turns around to see me. Her freckled cheeks rise into joyful balls, and her grey-green eyes light up as she grins at me. 

“Hey Freak!” She calls to me. 

I hate that word when anyone else says it, but out of her mouth it sounds somehow affectionate. 

“Sup!’ I call back. 

“How’s the ghost?” 

“Better. I kinda talked to him, using my notebook.” 

“Nice!” Meg nodds. “Hey, do you think you could ask him what it’s like being a ghost?” 

“Kind of a sensitive topic. Wouldn’t that be a bit rude?” I object. 

“It’s purely scientific! Shouldn’t we know as much about the Elsewhere as possible? Besides haven’t you always wondered what it’s like?” She argues.

“No.” I counter. “I see what it’s like. It’s confusing, lonely, sad. Most just re-live how they died over and over. Kenneth is lucky, at least he’s self aware. But in some ways I guess that’s worse.” 

“I both do and don’t want to see what you see.” Meg says. 

“You don't. It’s depressing, distracting, and it makes me look insane. I wish I were just normal.” 

Meg folds her arms. “Why is it that normal people want special powers, and people with special powers just want to be normal?” 

“Because having powers is cool on paper but sucks in real life.” 

“Like communism!” Meg adds.

I laugh. “Yeah, like communism.” 

That night, about 12:00 am on Saturday, I am woken up by someone shaking my shoulders. “Get up!” I hear Meg’s voice whisper. 

“What the heck! Why?!” I yell in a whisper. 

“Get dressed! Wear dark colors.  Meet me outside when you are ready!” Meg smiles in the darkness as she leaps off of my bed and runs downstairs. I rub the sleep from my eyes and get dressed. 

I meet Meg on my front lawn and she ushers me into her car. We are about halfway to our destination before I realize where we are going. 

“MEG! Are you taking me to the school!” I burst. She only smiles mischievously. “You want me to talk to Kenneth!” She nodds. “This is illegal!” I object.

“Don’t worry. We won't get caught.” She assures me. 

“Oh, And why not?” I cross my arms across my chest. 

She smiles. “First of all, it’s a public school, they don’t care. And second off, I will just put the cameras on a loop!” 

“Where did you learn to do that?” I ask as she pulls up the school. 

“Youtube.” She answers, putting the car into park and climbing out the door. “Wait here.” She says poking her head back in for a second. I watch her climb up to the roof and open something that looked like a hatch near the main office. After a few minutes of twiddling my thumbs, she opens the front door and gestures for me to come in. I sigh, open my door, and follow. Meg leads me down the hallway to my english classroom.

“Meg, I can’t do this.” I whisper. 

“We came this far.Don’t you think Kenneth gets lonely?” She asks rummaging through her bag. I hear metal jingling as she shakes her bag. “Got ‘em” She mumbles pulling out a ring of keys. She looks at the lock and finds the matching key. 

“Meg!” I protest, as she opens the door and shoves me in. 

Kenneth turns around, his body incandescent. He looks taller when we are both standing up. His hair is a dusty, dark blond and about normal length. His thick eyebrows are furrowed in confusion, but his hazel eyes are bright with intelligence and at the same time heavy with wisdom. His skin is light but not pale and his lips are on the fuller side, but not overly so. 

“Is he cute?” I hear Meg whisper in my ear. 

“The heck kinda question is that?” I ask. I feel her shrug as she clings to my shoulders to keep me from running away. The truth is, he is pretty attractive. But I’m not going to say it in front of him.  “Hi Kenneth.” I manage to say, awkwardly at best.

“Hi.” He responds. “What’s- What are you doing here right now?” 

“We came to ask you something.” 

“And what’s that?” Kenneth inquires. 

“She wants me to ask you what it’s like being dead.” I explain.  

Kenneth nodds. “I’m happy to answer questions, as long as you answer some of mine.” 

I nod. The least I can do for him is clear up what I can. 

He pauses and takes a moment to think. “Being dead is kinda like dreaming. That feeling where your brain is telling you your arm is moving but there’s no confirmation from your nerves, so it’s like a phantom sensation.” He says. I repeat it back to Meg. “My turn.” Kenneth interjects before I finish. I nod for him to go on. “How is it you can see me but no one else can?”

“I’m not totally sure.” I tell him. There have been a few theories from other- um, spirits. My favorite was the one about how I exist on two separate planes of life and whatever comes before and after. But it’s really all speculation I really have no idea how it works.” 

He nods. “Any inkling as to why that door is always locked, and why it hurts to touch?” I give him a confused look and repeat the last part of what he said as a question. “Yeah, it’s the only thing I really feel anymore. It feels like all my muscles are covered in acid and my blood is boiling.” He elaborates. I cringe at the discription. I can only shrug. 

“I really don’t know.” I tell him after a small pause. I glance at the clock. “Well, we should get home. It’s late.”

Meg and I turn to leave but Kenneth stops me,grabbing my wrist. His touch sends warm tingles through my arm. “Wait,” He says, his voice like a lonely child’s. “Come back another night?” He asks. 

I hesitate before finally giving a nod. “See you tomorrow.” I tell him as I leave. I look back over my shoulder once we are out of the room and he has a small smile on his face, a look of hope. It says,  _ I’m not alone anymore.  _

 

I visited Kenneth every night for the next week. The first night we took turns asking each other random questions. I learned he had two girlfriends in his life and kissed only one of them. His favorite subject was math, he loved numbers. I told him who my first crush ever was, when I first realized I had my powers, and how I came up with the term “The Elsewhere.” At the end of the week, we had opened up a bit. That was the night he told me how he died. 

“It was my junior year, up until that year we were like brothers...we did some not good stuff together but we were still like family...” Kenneth trails off.

“What changed things?” I ask. 

“A girl.” Kenneth pauses. “Cliche, I know. But it wasn’t a competition for her affections like in all the movies. Her name was Alexia. The two of us started dating and she was absolutely perfect. She had this affect on me that made me want to be a better person, but she took up all my time. Mark tried to talk to me to make me realize she was actually a poisonous snake, but even with the sudden possession and assault charges, I still believed she was a good person. It wasn’t until she attacked my sister that I realized Mark was right.” 

“You ended things right?” I interrupted.

“Oh yeah! She obviously didn’t take it very well.” He says, looking at the door.

I stare at him confused before it finally hits me. “Oh god…” I say as the news article flashes through my mind. The black and white picture of a girl with blond hair and perfect teeth and the picture of the blood stain on the door right next to it, along side Kenneth’s picture.“She killed you.” I say as I finally put the pieces together.  

He nodds. “She was trying to kill Mark.” 

I touch his arm and a flash of light covers my vision. When I finally regain my vision, I see Kenneth working on his test. Another boy sits next to him, he has a mess of dark brown, curly hair, he's overly skinny. He's stapling papers. There's a teacher at the front of the room. 

“Do you two boys mind if I leave for a few minutes to make some copies?” He asks. 

The two boys shake their heads and the teacher exits the room. After about thirty seconds Alexia comes in. Both boys stand up instantly and take a step back, eyes wide with caution. They look at her like an unstable bomb, one wrong move and she could go off. 

She tilts her head to the side at a sixty degree angle, her eyes gleam with hatred. She raises her left hand and points at Mark.   _ “You…” _ She spits in a soft, bitter tone echoing through her smooth voice.  _ “You’re the reason I’m like this.” _ Her voice got progressively louder.

“Alexia calm down…” Kenneth says slowly.

**_“It’s your doing!”_ ** She is almost shouting.  ****

“It’s nobody else's fault you’re crazy.” Mark counters defiantly. 

**_“I WON’T LET ANYONE CONTROL ME!”_ **  She screams pulling out a switchblade and lunging for Mark. Mark’s eyes go wide and he freezes like a deer in the headlights. 

Suddenly Kenneth is standing between them. She is in the middle of her rageful charge and can’t slow down. Kenneth catches her arm. They struggle for the knife, desks are knocked over in every direction. Mark tries to help, he comes from behind and puts his arms under Alexia’s shoulders and tries to pull her off. She elbows him in the gut and he tumbles back into the already knocked over desks. Kenneth hangs onto her arms still She manages to break free from Kenneth’s grip for just a moment by getting in a good punch to the solar plexus, and she lunges for Mark again. Kenneth quickly regains his balance and pulls Alexia around by her shoulders. She screams with fury and her arm plunges forward into his chest.

“KENNETH!” I scream. My eyes fill with hot tears, as the force pushes him into the door behind all the desks. I blink and suddenly the vision is from Kenneth’s perspective. I look down at my wound, the pain is excruciating and I feel a hot liquid soak my shirt and jeans. My vision turns red and I stare at Mark. His eyes are spilling with tears, as I sink to the floor. The world goes black and the last thing I hear is the teacher come back in and let out a loud scream. 

I shake my head and suddenly I’m back in real time with ghost Kenneth. 

“Are you ok?” Kenneth asks looking at me with concern. I feel warm streams of tears on my cheeks. I am speechless, I can’t answer Kenneth. After I take a second to process I throw my arms around Kenneth hold him tightly. He returns the hug. 

On Saturday, I visit my mom at the police station. She's not a cop, she's the records keeper. She loves her job, she likes organizing things. It's also convenient for me. I can visit her and she'll let me look through some files if I'm curious about a ghost. I bring her a sack lunch that I packed for her, it has a turkey and tomato sandwich, an apple, a bag of baby carrots and some Oreo cookies (Which are actually for me because I know she doesn't like Oreos.) She smiles when I hand her the bag, then she peeks inside and tosses the bag of Oreos to me as I walk to the back of the file room. “Can I use the computer back here mom?” I ask. 

“Go ahead.” She calls back. 

I sit down at the desk in the back. The computer is already logged on with my mom’s account. I pull up the records, Then I pull up Alexia’s file. At the top is a big image of her body laid across some lockers with a knife in her gut Juliet style. She’s absolutely clean up until her junior year, not even a parking ticket. But late her junior year, all of a sudden, there’s an assault charge, and two arrests for possession. I scroll down, there’s a page with a mental health evaluation, done by the state. They aren’t pretty, symptoms of schizophrenia, caused possibly by her habits of self medicating:  paranoia, hearing voices, and delusions of being controlled by shadows and them forcing her to take drugs. The psycholo-jerk who conducted this evaluation wrote a lot of notes on this sheet, more than I’ve ever gotten on any of the evaluations I’ve ever had. This girl was unstable. I wonder how Kenneth ended up dating someone so clearly insane. Suddenly I am flooded with curiosity. I type in Kenneth Williams. There’s the murder file but there’s something else.  _ He has a  _ _ record _ _?  _ He was busted for selling prescription drugs to students. I lean back in my chair. I should have expected it. It’s rare that a sincerely good student is stabbed to death. I close his file and shove another Oreo into my mouth. I take a second to rub my temple with my middle finger and process the information I just read. Then I sit up. I search Mark’s record. He’s dead… He shot himself in the hallway outside the classroom a year ago. There’s a lot of death around these kids. Looks like no one could survive the trauma of the day Kenneth died. 

“Hey sweetie could you bring me one of those Oreos?” My mom calls from the front. Like I said, my mom doesn't like Oreos. That’s code for a Cop’s coming and I need to get off the computer before I get caught.  I close out the files I was looking at and bring the bag of Oreos up front, shoving the last of them in my mouth and quickly chewing. 

“Sorry mom, I ate the last of them again.” I say my mouth full of cookie and creamy goodness. Out loud it probably sounded something like: “Ahrry mah ah aht dah wah aah mm ahain”  

My mom and the cop laugh. “Go on back Charlie.” My mom smiles at the officer. 

“Hi Charlie!” I grin as he messes up my already messy, fire-engine, red hair. It's not natural, I dye it.  

“Something wrong with Charlie?” I ask my mom. 

“It the sixth anniversary of the Kenneth Williams case. Charlie was the kid’s parole officer, apparently they were close and the boy was about to clean up his life and build a future when he was killed.” She explains. 

“Poor Charlie.” I say, but what I really mean is “Poor Kenneth.“ 

“What did you say the names of that E-Guy in your English class was?” She asks, connecting the dots.

“Kenneth.” I answer, grabbing my backpack as I walk away. “See you tonight mom! I'm going over to a friends house, ok?” 

She nods and tells me she loves me as I leave.

I caught the flu on Sunday and missed school Monday. My trigonometry teacher apparently thought that would be the perfect day to start actually teaching and I missed everything that would translate the elvish that is on the worksheet for tonight’s homework into something that would actually make sense. I would ask my one living friend, Meg, for help but she’s useless at anything involving missing variables. 

In English the teacher allows us a study hall since we just finished a book and the next book we are going to start hasn’t arrived yet.  I take out my trig homework and stare at it like it contains the secret to curing some terminal disease I’ve been  diagnosed with, but it’s written in an alien language so I can’t  understand it and my inevitable demise is finally dawning on me. (I know exactly what that looks like since it was the plot of a bad movie I saw once.)  

Kenneth taps my shoulder. “You’re supposed to use the equation:  sin 2 _ A _ = 2sin  _ A _ times  cos _ A _ .” He says pointing to number one. I say nothing, only stare at him like he’s some kind of strange jellyfish-like creature. 

“ I’m coming to visit you tonight, and you will teach me what this all means.”  I write on the top of the worksheet, then I stare at him with a desperate look on my face. 

I break into the school in the middle of the night once again, only this time with homework in hand. I open the door and slam the worksheet onto the nearest desk. “Help please.” I beg. 

Kenneth chuckles. He pulls out the rolly chair at the teacher’s desk and sits down. “Have a seat.” He says with a confident smirk. 

I pull up a chair and lay my homework in front of him. He explains how everything works slowly and clearly and he answers my repeated questions calmly and without getting annoyed or frustrated. He would have made an excellent school teacher. The time sort of slips through my fingers until the worksheet is finally finished. 

“That was surprisingly fun!” Kenneth says when it’s all over. 

“Yeah? You never helped the psycho ex with her homework?” I joke, then instantly realize my mistake as Kenneth falls silent and looks at his feet. “Sorry.” I say. 

“No.” Kenneth says looking up and giving me a smile. “It’s fine. I never did homework with Alexi, I wasn’t really able to focus on much of anything when she was around.” he says cheerily. 

“Typical.” I say, mimicking his tone with a smirk. 

“Yeah, that girl’s body was to die for!” He jokes, a stupid grin on his face. I smile and rest my face in my palm. As our laughter dies out we are making eye contact. Suddenly I feel his ghostly hand brush my hair over my ear. “I… I wish, I were alive,” He says softly. “Because I’ve finally found something...something I want to live for.” 

His words rob me of my breath. I just stare at him in amazement. I nibble my bottom lip in anticipation as his face draws closer to mine. Our lips are a millimeter apart when my phone goes off. Kenneth’s hands retreat to his pockets and his eyes to the floor as we quickly pull away. I turn my back to him as I answer the phone and feel my cheeks redden. 

“Where are you!” My mom shouts through the phone. 

_ Crap. _ “Sorry mom, just getting help from a tutor.” I tell her. 

“A TUTOR!” She shouts. “AT 3 AM!?” 

“Well mom he’s kinda dead…” I explain.

“Get your butt home now.” She orders. 

I hang up and turn around. “Sorry Kenneth, I have to go home… Mother calls.” I tell him holding up the phone and waving it a little. He nodds. 

“See ya...”

“See ya...”

I leave the room feeling different than when I came in. I’m more confident in trigonometry for one, but I also feel more confident in myself. There’s this weightlessness in my stomach and I feel like I could  fly. At the same time I feel like there’s a string tied to my chest and it’s pulling me back into that classroom. I turn around, I reach for the doorknob. My finger tips lightly brush it and suddenly I am snatched by the neck from behind. I manage to let out a shrilling cry before whatever has me cuts off my windpipe.I hear Kenneth scream my name from behind the door. I try and fight back, but I am not strong enough. I’m brought crashing to the tiled, hallway floor. My vision goes blurry from the blow. A slamming noise pounds my ear drums. It’s louder than anything I’ve ever heard.  _ Is it my heart beat telling me it’s about to stop? _ No.  _ Is it the sound of my head being repeatedly slammed into the tile? _ No, is sounds like a battering ram against wood and someone screaming in pain like every muscle in their body is being torn apart.I open my green eye, the figure is a ghost! The figure on top of me feels like approaching and already present death. I can’t tell if it’s my own death or the death of ghost straddling me.  Suddenly, there is one slam that was louder than all the rest and the hands around my neck are ripped from their grip. The weight of the figure’s body is lifted off of me. I hear something slam against the lockers. When I regain a portion of my strength, I sit up. I see Kenneth, my rescuer, standing there holding the black figure against the lockers by the neck. 

“Alexia, I told you I don’t belong to you.” Kenneth says through his teeth angrily.

I squint. “Kenneth… That’s not Alexia…” I point out between gasps for air, staring at the  shadow. The moonlight shines through the window and a silver light reveals the spirit’s true face. 

“Mark…” Kenneth says in confusion. He drops his friend to the floor. “I...I don’t understand.” 

“I think I do.” I mutter as all of the pieces of the puzzle come together and I feel my green eye take over my vision with images of reality. I enter a trance like state and my voice speaks with the sound of two. My own and Alexia’s.   “Alexia wasn’t the possessive one, It was Mark. The two of you sold drugs together and he didn’t want that to go away. When you met the legitimately nice girl who made you want to change your ways… he forced her to take drugs that messed with her brain and made her see him as a shadow monster” We explain. Mark’s ghost flashes and is suddenly straddling me again, looking like a shadow monster and clawing at my face. Kenneth grabs him by the hair and holds him off. The ghost’s face switching from boy Mark to shadow monster Mark. “Perhaps that’s who he really is.” We say. “The shadow monster.” 

Alexia’s ghost suddenly forms next to me, she’s wearing a long, pale blue dress that looks like it’s composed of light. Now she speaks on her own. “I’m sorry I killed you Kenneth.” She says. “But you got in the way of the destruction of my tormentor, and because of that man, I was no longer in control of my actions or impulses. I’m so sorry.” Her hands cradle Kenneth’s face. “ Please, I have to ask you not to get in my way this time.” 

Kenneth nods. Alexia places her hand on Mark’s head, her eyes and dress turn a blazing red color and he begins to crack. A beam of golden light shines through his eyes, his mouth and a hole in the right side of his head. Suddenly he bursts into a billion tiny shards of black glass. Her arm falls to her waist. 

“Alexia I’m sorry, I didn’t realize he was controlling you.” Kenneth apologizes profusely, tears in his eyes. Alexia smiles and they share a gentle romantic kiss. 

I feel my eyes well up  with tears. I’m happy for them and at the same time sad for myself. I stare at my feet until the kiss is over. “Now the two of you can pass on together.” I say as encouragingly as I can. 

Alexia looks at the floor then at me with the same sort of hurt-but-happy-for-you smile that I just gave the two of them. “Actually no.” She says, letting her hands slide from Kenneth’s cheeks. “When Kenneth broke through that door, he broke through the barrier between his life and death. Touching the door with just your fingertips causes the most immense pain imaginable, slamming his whole body into it should have been impossible to bare.” Kenneth nods at the floor in agreement.  “One only endures so much pain willingly if they have something to live for. Kenneth is alive now, he can’t pass on.” She sighs and takes Kenneth’s hand and places it into mine. “The both of you exist on both of the two planes now. So exist together. I have to go, I wish you two luck.” She smiles and walks away disappearing into the lockers where her body was found.     

Kenneth and I lock eyes in amazement about the whole situation. Not a word is said for a solid minute. The string tied to my chest tugs again and I grab Kenneth by the back of the neck and kiss him. Both worlds melt away and I feel like we are the center of the universe. I feel more alive than ever. We pull away and I stare at his eyes. They are the same as mine now. 

Kenneth and I are the same now, he has one green eye and one brown eye. The green eye sees the truth, but the brow one sees much more. The green eye sees reality. The brown one sees where everyone comes before they get to earth, and where they go after they leave it.  We see them both. Together. 


End file.
